I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication and, more specifically to data transmission and power control in a communication system.
II. Background
A multiple-access communication system can concurrently communicate with multiple terminals on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. Multiple terminals may simultaneously transmit data on the reverse link and/or receive data on the forward link. This is often achieved by multiplexing the multiple transmissions on each link to be orthogonal to one another in time, frequency and/or code domain.
The multiple-access system may support various communication services such as voice, packet data, and so on. Each service may be associated with certain performance requirements. Terminals receiving different services may be distributed throughout the coverage area of the system and may observe different channel conditions. Consequently, these terminals need different amounts of transmit powers in order to achieve the performance specified for the services being received.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to ensure that terminals in a multiple-access system can achieve the performance specified for the services supported by the system.